Year A Proper 12 2023 A Little Thing

 Year A Proper 12, 30 July 2023

St. Gabriel’s Church, Huyton Quarry, Liverpool, England

“A Little Thing”

Matthew 13:31-33,44-52

Jesus put before the crowds another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”

He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.”

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

“Have you understood all this?” They answered, “Yes.” And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”

Good morning, dear friends of St. Gabriel’s! It is so good to be back with you! It has been too long for reasons beyond both our controls, but I bring you greetings from St. James the Less in Ashland, Virginia, about 15 miles north of Richmond, the Capital of Virginia and the former Confederacy. Thankfully we are letting go of that second descriptor in a prideful way. But in honesty we must recognize our complicity in the horrible Civil War in the States and our role in the shameful slave trade economy that was the way of life in our country only 4 generations back. God forgive us!

But that is what brings me here today. I, as has been shared, am a part of the Triangle of Hope that seeks to overcome the legacy of this shameful past and move forward in faith to where God would lead us in repentance, reconciliation, and mission in the days to come. My pilgrims and fellow leaders from Virginia, and my fellow leaders from Kumasi, are so thankful of the Diocese of Liverpool, Canon Malcolm, and the leadership here to help make this happen in such wonderful ways this summer.

I have been asked by people what difference the youth pilgrimage can make. We are limited in how many kids we can bring. We are all small dealing with such huge, complex problems, does it really make a difference?

If our Gospel lesson teaches us anything, it is that small things not only make a difference, but if they are the right things, they make ALL the DIFFERENCE.

We are given visions of how God works in the Kingdom that Christ came to proclaim. It was already present, but Jesus came to teach us the nature of God and God’s ways in the Kingdom which he said was at hand. Don’t be confused, that does not mean that it could or might happen. It is at your hand. I like to say it better this way. “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand!” For me, I think of it this way.

“You can change your ways, for the Realm of God’s Rule is within your grasp!”

Jesus came to let us know how God’s present Kingdom works, and how we can realize it in our now, and step into that Eternal Now right now!

The first of today’s little stories is of the Mustard Seed. “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” I think we too often hear this story this way. “If you have the faith the size of a mustard seed. 

Jesus did not say that. Jesus spoke how the Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed. While small, it knows what it can do. It knows what it was made to do. It is there to be planted. It is there to grow and become big and strong, “The greatest of shrubs!” That sounds more like an insult than a compliment, but let’s give Jesus the benefit of the doubt. 

It started as a seed, became a sprout, then grew and grew till it made more mustard seeds, and even more, it became a home and place for rest for other of God’s creatures. The blessings keep coming and coming. The mustard seed trusts in who God made the seed to be. The seed believed in God, but just as important, the seed believed that the seed itself was capable, had a mission, and was called to do it.

Friends, we do not enter into the Kingdom of God for the benefits. Maybe at first, but not in the life-long. We enter the Kingdom of God to be who we were created to be. Just like the Mustard Seed. We are blessed, to be a blessing!

Then Jesus gets to the yeast. Yeast is so effective. A little goes a long way! “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.” If a little yeast goes a long way, the Kingdom of Heaven even more so. 

Think of those dark times in your own life, or a bad situation. And then a friend in Christ comes in. It might be a phone call or a little note. A little Christian yeast comes in that lightens the burden that you have been carrying. You so needed this drop of love, and it came. God works that way so often. Just when we need it, the Kingdom’s yeast rises to the occasion. Just the right amount, no matter how small it can seem to us, can make all the difference.

Supposedly Plato said, “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about.” That is actually attributed to SEVERAL people, but that does not make it less true! Do not worry about the provenance, listen to the words. Friends, we can be the woman who spreads the yeast into a needy situation. The yeast is the Kingdom. Hold that close. You can change the world with a little thing.

That is one reason I work with the Triangle of Hope. I have no idea where this stuff will spread. Just like yeast. [smile]

The few young people who go on these pilgrimages could be the leaders that spread the Kingdom of God in their country, and then to the whole world. Love, Reconciliation, and Repentance. That is our mission, and like yeast, once we are planted in right situation what a world of difference we can make.

I will merge the Treasure and the Pearl because they are saying similar things. “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.”

This is where we are shown what we value most. There was a game show in America called “Let’s Make A Deal.” Did you all have that one here?

The premise was that the contestant would win a nice but small prize, and they had to decide, sight unseen, for something behind the curtain, or in a big box, or something. They could keep what they had, or they could go for something better.

So often people think Christianity is like that. “Will it be worth it?” “There is a lot of work involved, and I just have to take it on faith that it will be worth it in the end.” That is SOOO different. The person knows the treasure is in the field. It is a lock. The pearl buyer, knows what he is getting. Friends, the God who made you, the Son who saves you, the Spirit whispering to your heart, they are all telling you that what meager thing that you are holding onto that is holding you back is not worth it. You can have the best, or settle for something meager. You make the call. But the game show is about entertainment, and they may have a bait-and-switch. Or like what happened to Jacob on his wedding night in our Genesis reading. God is not like that. God’s word is true. And God’s promises are sure. The Kingdom of Heaven is not “Let’s Make A Deal.” The Kingdom of Heaven is a sure thing, guaranteed.

The Net parable is where we will end it today. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 

It helps us to see what this is about if we look at it through the idea of clean and unclean fish. Things I love, shrimp or prawns, scallops, crabs, or oysters, these are plentiful in Virginia because of our beautiful Chesapeake Bay. We are mightily blessed. But according to Jewish dietary laws, no matter how tasty they are unclean. I find it so hard to think of a heavenly banquet without bacon-wrapped scallops. MMMM MMMM.

But I digress. When the net is drawn in, fish without gills are not kosher, they are considered unclean. There are those that are acceptable, and those that are not. I find this a hard story to read. I want the angels to bring in everybody. I do not want people sorted. Good/bad. Clean/unclean. But the Bible says that when time is done, there will be a reckoning. I am just glad that the angels are doing the sorting, and that they can see our truest selves. I am trusting that most will have their gills. And that the few seen as unrighteous, or unclean, will be thrown into the fire.

We are put on earth but a little space, 

to learn to bear the beams of love. (Wm. Blake)

The poet William Blake wrote that. We are in a place to learn and grow, to find out who we are and whose we are, and to live into that abundance each and every day. We are put here to bear those beams of love.

We bear those beams as we learn in Jesus’ School of the Kingdom, where he teaches us little lessons about mustard seeds and yeast, about hidden treasure and priceless pearls, and about a net that nothing escapes which is our reckoning.

There is nothing too fancy about all of his images. Even 2,000 years later we can picture them in our minds. Jesus and the Kingdom of Heaven he came to proclaim are as accessible and as costly as they were 2,000 years ago. I hope you will join me, and these Triangle of Hope pilgrims, as we strive to live into and live from the Kingdom of Heaven. What a gift, and it can be yours, too. Amen.

Year A Proper 11 2023 Bethel

Year A Proper 11, 23 July 2023

St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA

“Bethel”

Collect: Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom, you know our necessities before we ask and our ignorance in asking: Have compassion on our weakness, and mercifully give us those things which for our unworthiness we dare not, and for our blindness we cannot ask; through the worthiness of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Old Testament Genesis 28:10-19a

Jacob left Beer-sheba and went toward Haran. He came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And the Lord stood beside him and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!” And he was afraid, and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” 

So Jacob rose early in the morning, and he took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. He called that place Bethel.

Gospel Matthew 13:24-30,36-43

Jesus put before the crowd another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?’ He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he replied, ‘No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’” 

Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!” 

Making room for God is no easy task. We fill our lives with so much. Sports. Hobbies. Work. Family. All these things are good. But the task of a follower of Christ is always to have a spirit of Discernment, knowing the voices to which to listen, the gentle nudges to follow. 

Discernment is not about picking between the Good and the Bad. That is, and should be Common Sense. Good and Bad are easy. Choose the Good. Duh!

Discernment is about choosing between the Good and the Best. The Great and Sanctified. The path God does not call you down, and the one God does. This is much harder.

We live in a microwave oven, drive-thru, instantaneous satisfaction world. We are in such a rush we spell through in Drive-Thru, T-H-R-U. God help us. But Discernment does not work that way. Discernment is like erosion, it takes time for God to wash away the hardened outer layers to get to our hearts, that part of us that is still malleable and changeable.

We want spiritual growth, but we want it now. We want maturity and we will pitch a tantrum till we get it. We want wisdom without the work.

We tell the story of St. Paul’s conversion, which makes it sound like a lightswitch. On/Off. Bad/Good. Persecutor/Saint. But we forget the three days sitting in the darkness blind, waiting for a trepidatious saint to lay hands on and heal him. Even more, we leave out the three years he spent in Arabia figuring out what all this meant, attacking the Church, and then being called directly to be in it and work the rest of his life to grow it. We tell the conversion story like it is a singular event. But friends, I find that I have to be like Joshua (24:15) where he demands, “Choose you this day whom you will serve.” Conversion is an event, yes, but an event that I have to have every morning of every day for it to be real.

Discernment takes time. In today’s parable that Jesus told, the farmer had to wait to see what was a weed and what was wheat. It is easily seen in maturity. We may want to start with a blank slate and wipe everything out, but God is a gracious God, and if even one can be saved, God waits for the one. One stalk of wheat among the whole field of weeds would have been worth it to God.  This parable shows that amazing side of God. And teaches a lesson to us. Discernment takes time and patience. God’s Wisdom is seen in the Waiting. Thanks be to God!

And when the winnowing happens, may we be wheat and welcomed into Bethel, the House of God!

We get the name Bethel from our story with Jacob. He is running for his life after he stole his brother’s birthright. It is the beginning of a long journey, but this portent, this vision, or dream, of viewing is one of the key promises given to the patriarchs. 

In his flight, he stops to rest for the night, and takes a stone for a pillow. And he says a ladder going up to heaven. Notice the literal nature of this vision. A ladder going to a physical heaven atop the dome of the sky. That is how they saw things then. And God's messengers, for that is what angels mean, angelos: messenger, angel. And the angels are climbing up and down to do God’s bidding. Then Jacob hears from God himself this promise:

“I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

So much good and so much evil have been done from these verses applying them to modern contexts. But from these verses, this scared man-boy that is running for his life changes his attitude to one of hope. He has been given a promise that his story is not over, it is only the beginning, and that at some point he will be coming back and that he will prosper. Our choices are so much easier when we know we cannot fail.

Despite having been a cheat who usurped Esau’s birthright. Jacob means Usurper or one who trips up, by the way, and according to the story he was born grabbing hold of his twin’s heel and not letting go! But God, despite his flawed and self-serving nature, Jacob is given this vision and the promise. God’s salvation lineage is going through him. The Cheat. The Second-born. The Momma’s Boy. He is still seen as being blessed because of the story this morning.

Discernment is what took place here. He heard God’s word to him, that he will come back, he will have children, and the land will be for his offspring. And even more, God is with him until all that is promised has been fulfilled. As I said, it is easier to make choices when we know we cannot fail.

There have been times when I was so disappointed on how something went. Promised jobs suddenly welcoming someone else. Promised support that did not appear. Life is like that.

But I have lived long enough to see patterns, patterns where I gave it over to God and everything worked out, often better than I could have imagined or hoped for.

And then there were those times when I took matters into my own hands. And these are some of the things I regret the most. I need to have faith, and give it over to God.

Thankfully Jacob’s promise has been given to us as well. Jesus’ final words to his apostles, and to his Church which includes us, were these: 

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:18b-20

Jesus is with us. Jesus is with us in the hard times. Jesus is with us in the lonely times. Jesus is with us when we are working so hard. Jesus is with us when we are too tired to lift another finger. Jesus is just with us. Forever.

It makes those days when we face hard choices easier. It is promised that he is with us. And if he is with us, it will be okay. Whatever that path leads to, whatever it is that he would have us do.

What a comfort! What a relief! When the ingathering happens, all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well. And we will be welcomed home to Bethel, the House of God.

Tomorrow, when you get up, you will be given a choice, and again repeatedly throughout the day. Discernment is a gift, a chance to connect with God, and forge a righteous path. Being bad is easy, and the outcome is guaranteed. It takes a truly brave person to be faithful when that is the harder choice, the longer road, but consider the alternative. As for me, and hopefully all of us, we will choose God’s way. Amen 

Year A Proper 10 2023 Things Done and Things Left Undone

 Year A Proper 10, 16 July 2023

St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA

“Things Done and Things Left Undone”

Collect: O Lord, mercifully receive the prayers of your people who call upon you, and grant that they may know and understand what things they ought to do, and also may have grace and power faithfully to accomplish them; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Romans 8:1-11

There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God's law-- indeed it cannot, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 

But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.

Matthew 13:1-9,18-23

Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying: “Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Let anyone with ears listen!”

“Hear then the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing. But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”

We do not often speak of sins in the Episcopal Church, not in my experience. We believe in sin, but we emphasize Grace, the unwarranted and wonderful forgiveness of our sins, but we are sinners thankfully in the hands of a loving and gracious God, no matter what Jonathan Edwards said.

We have often heard of the Seven Deadly Sins: pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony and sloth. Those are bad, but we do not recognize categories or degrees of sin, but we recognize that sin is what keeps us from God. According to the Catechism in the back of your Prayer Book, here is the definition. “Sin is the seeking of our own will instead of the will of God, thus distorting our relationship with God, with other people, and with all creation.” (BCP, p. 848) In my research for today, I even learned a new word I do not remember encountering before: Hamartiology, a branch of Christian theology which is the study of sin. That sounds like an intriguing job, but a dangerous one, studying sin. Don’t aspire to be a hamartiologist.

So if we are sinners in the hands of a gracious God, that love and graciousness does not drive me to sin so that “grace may abound” as St. Paul put it, but I do not sin because it is a stumbling block between the God I love and me whom God loves. I know it is there, and it drives me out of shame or guilt to keep away from the one who loves me to death, even death on a cross.

And friends we sin in oh so many ways. Through intentional choices, choosing to go away from God’s ways in our thoughts, words, and deeds. In our service this morning we started with a prayer saying as much. 

Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known,

and from you no secrets are hid: Cleanse the thoughts of our

hearts…

And in a moment, in our Confession:

Most merciful God,

we confess that we have sinned against you

in thought, word, and deed…

We sin in our minds, in our speech, and in our actions. There are things we choose to do. But even more, there are things that we choose not to do that we know we should have chosen. In our confession we put that this way:

by what we have done,

and by what we have left undone.

These Sins of Commission, those things we do, and those Sins of Omission, those things that we do not do but could have and should have, are the biggies. They are the ones, if we think about it, are the sins that keep us up at night. From the spots on Lady MacBeth’s hands to the clean hands that should have been sullied in God’s work, Sins of Commission and Omission both take their toll.

And not only that, we have even included our greatest commandment, “Love God with all that you are, and your neighbor as much as yourself.”

We have not loved you with our whole heart;

we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.

We are truly sorry and we humbly repent.

So many ways to sin. What hope do we have? 

On our own? None.

But then we have the passage for our New Testament reading which closes with this:

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.

We have this hope our spirits and our bodies both are made whole in Jesus.

In our Collect this morning, we lifted these sins up this way:

O Lord, mercifully receive the prayers of your people who call upon you, and grant that they may know and understand what things they ought to do, and also may have grace and power faithfully to accomplish them…

I appreciate, and it is so very Episcopalian, to focus on doing the right thing and asking for the grace to do it rather than focus on the sin.

It is like telling you not to think of a pink elephant. As soon as I do, your mind probably pictured what I said not to picture. It is how we are wired. And know that.

It is better and good to emphasize that which we want. When I was a lifeguard we were taught not to yell, “Don’t Run!” We were told to loudly say, “Walk!” or “We walk at the pool.” People are far more likely to do what they should when they are reminded of what is expected, or right, or good.

When Stephanie and I were in graduate school, one of the key techniques they emphasized in working with groups was to follow Appreciative Inquiry. When brought in to work with any group, ask the group in as many ways as needed, “What is working here? What is good?”

And then you have the group focus on spend their energies on doing what it is that they do well, and fill their days with that. And guess what!?! As soon as one does, or the group does, then there is no time or room for the bad.

If you are busy rowing, it is hard to rock the boat. I have often found that those who are addicted to drama soon find that people no longer willing to put up with it.

But life is not always what we do well, or even things we want to do. We have to “pay the bills” as one of my bosses used to say, and if there is something you do, or have to do, that is not a favorite or takes a lot of energy to accomplish, DO THAT FIRST! Make it a priority!

It is sometimes called, “Eat the frog first!”, or some equally disgusting metaphor. If you have to eat a frog, start with that and the rest of the day HAS to be better. Sometimes the right thing is hard to do, or something our smaller selves goes kicking or screaming into doing. That’s your frog. You will do it, you know you should and deep down want to but the petty child in all of us grumbles, that’s your frog. Just eat it, and get it over with. Often the emotional energy we put out to avoid doing whatever it is, is worse than the actual thing. This is how the frogs do not turn into “things left undone.”

Kasey and I while making things happen around here that there are some folks and and many situations that we call EGR. Extra Grace Required. EGR situations are our frogs that we start with. On this side of heaven there will always be EGRs that we have to deal with. 

Friends, we all want to be those seedlings which are planted in good soil that grow up big and strong, and have yields of 30, 60, or 100-fold. To have that kind of growth, we need to get rid of the stones, get rid of the weeds, furrow the soil and make it rich and as nutrient-filled as we can.

What we are talking about today is tilling our soil so that we can be ready for God. We get rid of the things which prevent the roots from going down deep. We do our part so when the Savior sows the seed we are in the best state to receive it.

We all can hear. Will we be ready to hear when the Savior calls? Amen

Year A Proper 8 WED 2023 In The Know

 Year A Proper 8, WEDNESDAY July 5,  2023

St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA

“In the Know”

Collect: Almighty God, you have built your Church upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone: Grant us so to be joined together in unity of spirit by their teaching, that we may be made a holy temple acceptable to you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Acts 8:14-25

Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. The two went down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit (for as yet the Spirit had not come upon any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus). Then Peter and John laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, saying, ‘Give me also this power so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.’ But Peter said to him, ‘May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain God’s gift with money! You have no part or share in this, for your heart is not right before God. Repent therefore of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you.For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and the chains of wickedness.’ Simon answered, ‘Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said may happen to me.’

Now after Peter and John had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, proclaiming the good news to many villages of the Samaritans.

Luke 23:1-12

Then the assembly rose as a body and brought Jesus before Pilate. They began to accuse him, saying, ‘We found this man perverting our nation, forbidding us to pay taxes to the emperor, and saying that he himself is the Messiah, a king.’ Then Pilate asked him, ‘Are you the king of the Jews?’ He answered, ‘You say so.’ Then Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowds, ‘I find no basis for an accusation against this man.’ But they were insistent and said, ‘He stirs up the people by teaching throughout all Judea, from Galilee where he began even to this place.’

When Pilate heard this, he asked whether the man was a Galilean. And when he learned that he was under Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him off to Herod, who was himself in Jerusalem at that time. When Herod saw Jesus, he was very glad, for he had been wanting to see him for a long time, because he had heard about him and was hoping to see him perform some sign. He questioned him at some length, but Jesus gave him no answer. The chief priests and the scribes stood by, vehemently accusing him. Even Herod with his soldiers treated him with contempt and mocked him; then he put an elegant robe on him, and sent him back to Pilate. That same day Herod and Pilate became friends with each other; before this they had been enemies.

There are those who are “in the know” and those who are not. Any subject. 

I have gotten to the age where I am no longer as savvy on pop culture as I once was. My kids start blathering, I mean talking, talking, about something or other they care about on YouTube and I feel my mind shutting down and my eyes glazing over. Oh well. It happens to the best of us. They are in the know and I most certainly am not. And honestly I do not really want to be. I am comfortably clueless.

Herod and Pilate had no idea how serious this situation was and played hot potato with Jesus to appease the Sanhedrin. They knew to pretend to care to get it over with, and it says they even bonded in friendship over this while they looked down their noses together at this silly Jewish preacher who thought so much of himself.

They were definitely not in the know.

Simon in our Acts reading was much the same as far as being clueless, but for him it was about the Holy Spirit being a commodity that could be exchanged. A little cash, and voila! Unlimited power! The Holy Spirit does not work that way.

Friends, to get what they were giving there is nothing we can give or do to receive it other than accept it. It is a gift, a grace, the Greek word xapis (charis) which is the root of Charisma, and by itself translates as Grace is what we are talking about.

When we baptize our people and mark them as Christ’s own forever it starts, and when the Bishop lays hands on them in confirmation it is down a millenia long line of succession that leads from Jesus through the ages to us today. And that line of faith, that line of hope, that line of being in the know is beautiful, and fragile, and holy. Thanks be to God.

When we bump into those Herods and Pilates and Simons who reduce our gifts to something small and of no import it says more about them than us. May we hold precious that gift given to us, the Christ who saves us, the Spirit who guides us, and the Father who made us. May they see the precious nature of this relationship and want to have it, too. And may we be there to offer it to them. Amen

Year A Independence Day (Observed) 2023 Dreams Yet Unborn

 Year A Independence Day (Observed), 2 July 2023

St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA

“Dreams Yet Unborn”

Collect: Lord God Almighty, in whose Name the founders of this country won liberty for themselves and for us, and lit the torch of freedom for nations then unborn: Grant that we and all the people of this land may have grace to maintain our liberties in righteousness and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Deuteronomy 10:17-21

The Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe, who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing. You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. You shall fear the Lord your God; him alone you shall worship; to him you shall hold fast, and by his name you shall swear. He is your praise; he is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things that your own eyes have seen.

Hebrews 11:8-16

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he stayed for a time in the land he had been promised, as in a foreign land, living in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. By faith he received power of procreation, even though he was too old-- and Sarah herself was barren-- because he considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one person, and this one as good as dead, descendants were born, “as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.”

All of these died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them. They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth, for people who speak in this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of the land that they had left behind, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; indeed, he has prepared a city for them.

Matthew 5:43-48

Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Friends, we see things with our eyes. We touch things with our hands. We smell things with our nose. We hear things with our ears. We taste things with our tongues. We have these five senses and we think that they contain reality. And we can stop there, thinking that that is all there is. But we all know that our realities and the rules we live by are bigger than our five senses. This nation we live in is as much an idea as it is a place we can sense, maybe more so.

It has been called the American Experiment. A nation founded on discovery and yet colonization, idealism and yet profit, freedom and yet servitude. We are a contradiction when slaveholders declare that all people are created equal and are gifted with the charisms of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And for almost 250 years officially (and 150 before that unofficially) we have been unpacking what it really means and trying to make it real.

We began as a place of dreamed-of wealth, where the streets were paved with gold, then it became a refuge for political freedom, where religious refugees who thought the Church of England was not strict enough tried to live on their principles, in a land that they thought was theirs to claim.

But we grew and expanded, the Virginia Company which came here to establish Jamestown, and hopefully make a tidy profit, folded, and other colonies began in equal attempts to get a toehold on this continent. While perhaps not yet formalized, an idea was emerging that something great could come from hard work, vast resources, and gumption.

But we could not, and did not, do it on our own. There are three required legs to the stool that is economics, capital, resources, and labor. The interplay of those three is what creates something, and we were soon learning that with the vast resources of this land, and with added labor at minimal expenditure, the capital could grow and grow and grow. What was a cost savings was at the price of others’ freedoms. It would take centuries for us to learn the hypocrisy of our individual ideals on the backs of others. And we are still overcoming that price that was paid.

I started today with our five senses, and that too often we think that those five sensory inputs are what we are limited to as far as reality goes. But we all know there is more to life than what we can gain through the senses. We feel our emotions, we sense things that are unspoken, unseen, not really there for sense input. But these things are just as real.

We live and die by these “not real things.” Take a border, for instance. It is an arbitrary line set down by two (or more) parties negotiating what will be the limitation of one state and the limitation of the other state. That line is not real, whether it is a property line or a national border. God did not make a line there, but we agree to the idea that one side of this imaginary line is one state and the other side of that line is another state. It is a social fiction that people can die on, die over, and die from. That makes it pretty real, even though it is arbitrary and entirely unseen.

There are other intangible things that can be fighting words or ideals depending on who is perceiving them.

My dear friend, Malcolm Rogers, and I have stayed up many a late night talking about the role of the Big-C Church, the catholic (universal) Church and its role in society. In the United Kingdom, the Church of England is part of the state and its apparatus. Here in the United States, in response to that, we have made the separation of Church and State a revered ideal. When people purport to do things in Jesus' name, especially appointed or elected leaders, I get deeply worried. Should the Church have a say in things? I believe so, yes. But there is no uniform view on this. There are versions of Jesus I do not want my children exposed to, and there are people who want no religious view of Jesus mentioned to their child. I understand that as well. Religious Freedom enables us to exercise our religion, and those who choose to be apart from or religion-less to exercise their rights as well. As I protect them, I protect me. There are those who act on my Jesus’ name that I find anathema. I find it better to separate the Church and State, while Mal+ has a role in caring for the “Least of These” in boards and commissions where I do not. I am learning from him, and hopefully he is from me. The conversations, and sometimes debates, are fascinating. But that idea, a Church apart from the State has its costs and benefits either way. I would fight and die on this ideal, and others like Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion, Freedom from Want, and Freedom from Fear. President Franklin Roosevelt enumerated these in his famous “Four Freedoms” speech when he openly spoke to the role of a democratic state in the face of dictators and authoritarianism.

And in this age, we are again seeing the rise of authoritarianism and the curtailing of liberal democracy. When I say that, by the way I am not speaking of liberal as in liberal and conservative, but rather liberal in the academic sense of “free,” particularly “free to choose” in our voting. (“Liberal democracy is a liberal political ideology and a form of government in which representative democracy operates under the principles of classical liberalism. It is characterized by elections between multiple distinct political parties, a separation of powers into different branches of government, the rule of law in everyday life as part of an open society, a market economy with private property and the equal protection of human rights, civil rights, civil liberties and political freedoms for all people.” Source: https://www.populismstudies.org/Vocabulary/liberal-democracy/) There are cycles and seasons, and I hope and pray that we continue to grow into the fullness of Christ individually and collectively, where the least and powerless are cared for and considered as the God of Scripture calls us to do.

In our Deuteronomy reading we are instructed to love God, and care for the widow, orphan, and stranger. We are commanded to love God fully, and in that we find our freedom. The one who made us knows how we are meant to run. I love how it ends, and how it describes God. 

He is your praise; he is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things that your own eyes have seen.

We live in the most powerful and richest nation that has ever existed on the planet earth to our knowledge. And we have been blessed to be a blessing, I cannot say that enough. Our freedoms of personal opinion, those of speech and religion, are coupled with the responsibilities of freedom from want and freedom from fear. Too often these days we neglect one side for the other. We are called to choose to love God and care for our neighbor. It is both/and, not either/or. Freedom and Responsibility. That is what has made us great from our founding. When we let go of either is when we have failed so miserably.

The Desert Fathers and Mothers were ascetics, isolated hermits who intentionally lived alone to allow themselves to fully devote their whole lives to God. They gave the church great insights into the nature of God and the nature of the human heart. For their work, they would often do some simple repetitive task like basket weaving to give their bodies a task while they would pray, often reciting all 150 Psalms from memory over the course of the day. And if you are familiar with the holy songbook that is the Psalms, you will be familiar with some of the darker psalms which call for God to smite our enemies. But how did they square this with Jesus’ teaching to love our enemies? Instead of looking externally, they turned these statements inward. 

When it came to loving their enemies, and also praying that they be wiped out, they gave up to God in their prayers those parts of themselves which were not of Christ, or where Christ called them to be.

So often in our conversations about this nation, it goes to name-calling and blaming, or even shaming. And so often it gets us nowhere. When the nation erupted over the tragic murder of George Floyd, there were stark divisions. Even mentioning it probably turned some of you off of anything else I might say this morning.

But speaking the truth in love as we are called to do, we have a long tragic history of racism in this country, and it is tied to power and privilege. Systems are still in place that maintain and limit some to the advantage of others, and when I bring it up there is a pinch, and like all animals, we avoid pinches whenever, however, we can. But the only way to stop the pinching is to go to the source. And it will take long and hard conversations, loving of enemies and smiting of those parts of ourselves that are not like Christ.

Friends, I thank God for this country. We have so much potential, but we have work to do to have dreams come true. The American Dream for every one of us, Martin Luther King’s Dream where people are only judged by the content of their character, and God’s Dream of a Kingdom Come on Earth as it is in Heaven. 

Our Hebrews reading closes with those who did not look back, and forged ahead into the unknown, but also into the promises of God. May it apply to us as well.

“They desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; indeed, he has prepared a city for them.”

If it is true for them, it is true for us. We have to let go of the contradictions that flood our senses, and sense beyond the sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and touches that prevent us from seeing what God would have us do, and even more, who God would have us be. May God fulfill these dreams yet unborn, and may God continue to bless America. Amen